Poison Town

by Elyssa Campbell

Overview

ELYSSA CAMPBELL’s debut novel Poison Town tells the story of a fourteen-year-old who becomes an environmental activist - in a company town built around a smelter. She faces a mystery – what is poisoning the town when there has been a successful clean-up.

Addie’s town is built around a lead and zinc smelter. The company has done an extensive cleanup of its operations, but the air and water still seem dangerous. Addie decides to find out if the smelter is still poisoning local residents. To do that, she needs help.

This novel allows young readers to confront climate anxieties while finding inspiration in Addie’s believable and realistic actions. Addie is overlooked and treated as a child who wouldn’t understand. Big mistake. She uses adult naivety to her advantage and confronts what most people in her town are too fearful to address.

ELYSSA CAMPBELL adds an author’s note to her story, pointing to real-life examples which closely parallel the situation and events in her novel

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781459417502
Publisher:	James Lorimer & Company Ltd., Publishers
Publication date:	09/26/2023
Sold by:	De Marque
Format:	eBook
Pages:	104
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

ELYSSA CAMPBELL'S stories have been published in literary magazines in Canada and the United States. She’s also into skiing, hiking, and playing with her dog. She is a substitute teacher, and self-identifies as having an ADHD brain. She grew up in a town with a smelter and now lives near Vancouver, Canada.

Editorial Reviews

"An absorbing story of grassroots environmental activism by teens."—Kirkus Reviews

— (1/1/2024 12:00:00 AM)

From the Publisher

2023-09-23
Fourteen-year-old Addie is on a mission to raise awareness about pollution in her small town in the Kootenay region of British Columbia.

When Addie Woods and Priya Gill get paired for a science project, neither of them wants to work together. But their teacher forces them to collaborate despite their mutual animosity, and the girls ultimately find common ground in investigating the pollution coming from the smelter that their town’s economy is built on. Both their dads work there monitoring emissions, and Priya trusts the advanced technology is making things safe, while Addie is concerned about the amounts of lead and sulfur dioxide still being emitted. The pair agree to test their conflicting hypotheses, and they find evidence that the pollution from the smelter is indeed harming the local people, flora, and fauna. For Addie, this is no longer just a science project: It’s an important turning point in her activism. As the girls work together, they come to see beyond their earlier impressions of one another. Inspired by the author’s own experiences, this original exploration of the impact of environmental pollution is a quick and accessible read, with consistent, smooth pacing and solid characterization. While some adults seem to change their attitudes unrealistically quickly, this does serve to emphasize the efficacy of the young people’s activism. Indian Canadian Priya and her family live in an otherwise white town.

An absorbing story of grassroots environmental activism by teens. (author’s note, sources and further reading) (Fiction. 12-16)

Kirkus Reviews